PM condemns ‘evil, calculated’ Kabul blast as Australia halts Afghanistan rescue mission

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has condemned the “evil, calculated” attack outside Kabul’s airport overnight as he confirmed the Australian evacuation mission in Afghanistan has ended.

Islamic State struck the crowded gates of Kabul airport in a suicide bomb attack early Friday morning AEST, killing scores of civilians and 13 US troops, and throwing into mayhem the airlift of tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to flee.

Onlookers and injured people surround the site of a deadly explosion outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.Credit: Aśvaka News Agency via AP

Kabul health officials were quoted as saying 60 civilians were killed. ISIS-K, an offshoot of the ISIS terror group, claimed the attack, which followed intelligence that warned of the threat. Video shot by Afghan journalists showed dozens of bodies strewn around a canal near the airport. At least two blasts rocked the area, witnesses said.

Australia managed to get all its Defence and Foreign Affairs staff out of Afghanistan on Thursday night, shortly before the bombing.

Mr Morrison said on Friday he had written to US President Joe Biden to convey the nation’s and his own “deep, personal sadness” about the deaths of the 13 soldiers.

“Australia condemns the evil, calculated and inhuman attacks that were undertaken in Kabul overnight on the innocent and the brave,” he said. “We join our American and Afghan friends in mourning this terrible and awful loss.”

The Opposition’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, said “every Australian’s heart is bleeding today for the terrible things we are seeing in Afghanistan”.

Australia, Britain and the United States on Thursday morning updated their travel advice, warning people not to attempt the dangerous journey to the Kabul airport after receiving “credible threats” of a terrorist attack.

In the days before Australia’s airlift operation ended on Thursday afternoon, just hours before the two blasts, 3200 Australians and Afghan visa holders were evacuated by Australian forces and another 800 by allies.

But Mr Morrison said opportunities for getting anyone out of Afghanistan now “will be very restricted”.

A medical worker attends to someone wounded in the deadly Kabul airport attack.Credit: AP

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne urged Australians and visa holders still in Afghanistan to heed the updated travel advice, which warned people to seek safety away from the airport.

“I cannot encourage strongly enough the following of that travel advice and I encourage those who are in Kabul, who have not registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to register,” she said. “We know that this is a very distressing situation for Australians still in Kabul, for people with visas and for families and friends who are here in Australia.”

Mr Morrison said the US and United Kingdom were expected to stay in Afghanistan for a few more days but many other countries had also withdrawn overnight.

New Zealand has ended all of its airlift operations out of Kabul airport, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying: “Operational considerations have now dictated the necessity to end further flights into Kabul.”

One Afghan man with an Australian visa had been trying to get into the airport through Abbey Gate, where the explosion occurred, for three consecutive nights with his family.

But after the threat of a terror attack was publicised, he and his family sought shelter nearby on Thursday.

“We are safe,” the man said. An Australian, who has also had family members trying to get into the Abbey Gate entrance all week, also said her family members had stayed back from the crowd on Thursday and were safe.

It is believed former security guards who helped protect the Australian embassy, who had been waiting outside the airport for days, moved away from the airport hours before the attack.

Afghanistan evacuees at Australia’s main operating base in the Middle East board a Royal Australian Air Force KC-30 aircraft bound for Australia.Credit: Supplied

A Sydney woman whose husband was at Kabul airport when a bomb exploded is thankful he was not injured but remains fearful for his safety.

Fatima, who spoke to the Herald earlier this week about her husband’s plight, said he returned to the airport on Wednesday after being issued with a temporary visa. She said he was ignored by Australian soldiers outside the airport gate where he had waited for more than 24 hours to gain entry.

“I don’t think he can make it to the airport again,” she said. “I am so scared and worried.”

Her husband is one of 200 people in Kabul who Sydney migration lawyer Anna Ryburn is trying to help rescue.

Ms Ryburn estimates about 50 of her clients have now escaped Kabul after securing a place on a flight. She said she had registered her clients’ names with Australian government officials and provided photographs, so they could be identified at the airport gates.

Sydney lawyer and human rights advocate Mariam Veiszadeh said Australia now needed to look at finding alternative options to evacuate Afghan Australians. People on temporary visas should be provided with a pathway to residency and Australia needed to increase its humanitarian intake, particularly for those most at risk, she said.

James Jeffrey, former US ambassador to Iraq and envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS, said the attack was a “political signal that Islamic State, unlike the Taliban, will continue attacking American and Western targets.

“This is a fundamental challenge to Taliban control and underscores the continued threat from Afghanistan after the American withdrawal,” said Jeffrey, now director of the Middle East program as the Wilson Centre.

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